Paper sensor performs malaria and HIV tests

For those of us who live in the developed world, we hardly give two hoots about getting our blood test done at a lab, but in third world countries and the developing world, things are not that straightforward. Not only are blood tests expensive, it can also be a problem in getting them from testing sites to the lab. Just in case you didn’t know, there are still places here on earth that have potentially deadly diseases like HIV and malaria running rampant, but thankfully the human spirit tends to devise different ways of managing such issues for a better world at the end of the day. Researchers over at the University of Texas at Austin have managed to come up with what they think might be a lab test replacement for malaria and HIV – coming in the form of an origami-inspired paper sensor.

Cost is not an issue here, as the sensor itself costs less than $0.10 to manufacture. This is definitely an improvement over the standard home pregnancy test that relies on one-dimensional paper sensors, since it will boast of folded 3D sensors which have been developed by UT researchers, being able to test for more results in a smaller area. This in turn would mean one is able to perform more complicated testing – like checking out malaria and HIV infections in this instance.